


Lights'n'cats

by SunshineReiji



Series: A drop in the ocean [2]
Category: Uta no Prince-sama
Genre: Astraphobia, Fluff, Implied Suicide Attempt, Implied/Referenced Self-Harm, M/M, Ranmaru is a Teddy Bear, Reiji is afraid of storms, shameless fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-27
Updated: 2018-10-27
Packaged: 2019-08-08 09:17:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,976
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16426628
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SunshineReiji/pseuds/SunshineReiji
Summary: Ranmaru had noticed a lot of things about Reiji, mainly his insecurities and fears. Apparently, lightning and thunder were two new things to add to the list.





	Lights'n'cats

**Author's Note:**

> A bit of shameless fluffy RanRei. This fic is in the continuity of "Roller-coaster", but you do not need to read it to understand this one.  
> Enjoy !

A big storm had started in the morning and only got worse as the day went by. It hadn’t been considered dangerous until the late hours of the afternoon, when trees started to burn and fire rescue was demanded all around town. As a consequence, everyone was requested to stay at home.

Kurosaki Ranmaru _loved_ storms. As he was sitting next to his window, in his room, in the flat he shared with the rest of Quartet Night, looking at the lightnings streaking the evening sky ; he felt the familiar surge of calm and peace gently envelop his mind and soul. He sighed in content, enjoying the quiet place.  
The little muffled ‘meow’ took him out of his reverie. He looked down and saw that the little kitten he had found outside in the rain had finally woken up. It was stirring around in the little nest the white-haired man had quickly created out of his own clothes. It meowed again at him and Ranmaru smiled lightly as he moved to approach the kitten with white-spotted, caramel fur.

« Hey there, Mari. » he whispered, while extending his right hand to let the little animal sniffle it.

‘Mari’ was the name engraved in the pendant of the kitten’s collar. As soon as he had found it, Ranmaru had looked for lost animal appeals online ans posted a few messages of his own in which he declared having found Mari, the place he found it, then described the kitten and assured that it was in safe hands. He hoped for a quick answer.  
The little animal accepted Ranmaru as it started leaning on his hand, demanding more strokes. Ranmaru gladly gave in and played with Mari.

After a few minutes, he heard the front door open and close. He guessed that his bandmates must have finally come back. He had been the first one home, since his job of the day had not been far. The others had some path to cross.  
Leaving Mari in its nest, he got out to see who exactly was back.

As he got out of his room, he saw Ai enter the bathroom. Camus was seated on the sofa, wringing his hair. When he noticed him, the blonde nodded lightly.

« Kurosaki. »

« Camus. » Ranmaru answered.

« Kotobuki is not back yet ? It is strangely quiet. »

The white-haired man raised an eyebrow.

« No, not yet. »

Camus said nothing else, and so did Ranmaru. After a few minutes, Ai got out and retreated to his own room, declaring he had to sort out today’s data. Camus went to dry himself and Ranmaru was left alone in the living room. Eventually Camus retreated to his den too and the rocker waited for the leader of the group on his own.  
Down, on the road, few cars were flashing their lights. Nearly everyone was hidden in their comfortable houses, away from the rain and the storm.

Except for one person.

Ranmaru sighed, then decided to prepare a dry towel in order to throw it on his boyfriend as soon as he would be back.  
He chuckled. In a way, it was still funny to call Reiji his ‘boyfriend’. After the events that had transpired last month, when the brunet had tried to... _drown_ himself... both of them had ended up confessing their love to each other. Ranmaru had grown very protective of Reiji, making sure the older boy felt loved and needed. No, Ranmaru Kurosaki was not good at expressing his emotions, but he had tried harder for Reiji, because he refused to see the horrible image of the brunet’s lifeless body floating in the ocean ever again. Reiji did not deserve chocking on water, he deserved breath-taking kisses ; not cold waves hitting his bare skin, but warm hands caressing it.  
Lately, Reiji was a bit more confident in Ranmaru’s love and both of them had gained more trust in each other. It went to the point that the white-haired man had confided in the brunet, telling him bits of his life that he had refused to tell anyone before.  
Yes, Ranmaru trusted Reiji with his life, and Reiji did the same.  
As a consequence, Ranmaru had learnt that Reiji was actually a very insecure man. Despite being a real electric pile and often pretending to do things without thinking and at the last minute, Reiji was a lot about stability and routine. He needed some things to be real anchors when his own mind was creating a havoc inside of him. Ranmaru had indeed noticed some patterns in the brunet’s behaviour. When something minor bothered him, a cup of coffee, some karaage and spending time with others would fix it. Next level, Reiji would busy himself with work and go on drives more often. If it was something bigger, he would take some days off and help his mother out at the bento shop. Usually it never went further.  
Ranmaru couldn’t even begin to imagine to what state Reiji had been brought to try to end it all.  
Recently, Ranmaru himself had become one of those anchors. Especially, he had noticed, his smell. Very often, the rocker found the brunet wearing his brown pull-over to be comforted by his smell of pine. He would then give it back to Ranmaru so that he could wear it and renew the smell. Sometimes, he even took his perfume and sprayed his bed sheets with it.  
The white-haired boy found it more cheesy than anything.  
But it kept Reiji happy.  
So it was fine.

After another hour or so, as Ranmaru was preparing himself a coffee, the front door burst open and closed quickly, and a brown figure dashed through the living room to the leader’s bedroom. Raising an eyebrow, the white-haired man grabbed the mug of coffee and the dry towel and went to Reiji’s room. He knocked loudly at the door and then invited himself in.  
As he entered, another lightning cut the sky in half and all Ranmaru heard was the terrified squeal coming from a small heap of blankets. Confused, he approached the bed, getting past a pair of wet white trainers. He touched the heap gently and heard Reiji’s muffled voice ask : 

« Could you close the curtains, please ? »

Ranmaru obeyed, worry filling him at the sound of the brunet’s terrified voice. As soon as the room was shielded from any exterior light, a small wet brown head shyly got out of the blanket armour. It looked around and as it spotted Ranmaru once again, a trembling voice left it :

« Ranran...? »

Aforementioned man rushed to his boyfriend’s side, set the coffee on the side table and with his newly freed hand cupped Reiji’s face. 

« Reiji, what’s going on ? »

Just as the brunet opened his mouth, another thunder roared and the smaller man launched himself into Ranmaru’s arms with another cry of terror. The white-haired man held him close, one hand rubbing his back and the other trying to wring his hair as best as he could.

« Reiji, are you afraid of storms ? » Ranmaru finally asked.

In response, the brunet buried himself deeper in the rocker’s arms. Ranmaru chuckled lightly and started to dry Reiji’s hair with both hands in smooth gestures, reassured that nothing bad had happened to his brown head.  
Another thunder and the clown-idol moaned miserably against Ranmaru’s torso. He was shaking violently and his breathing was becoming laboured.

« Reiji, calm down, it’s all right, you’re safe. » Ranmaru soothed him.

Suddenly, an idea struck him. He gently pushed Reiji back to meet his eyes, despite the elder’s reluctance to let go.

« Reiji, I’ll go grab some things in my room and I’ll be back, okay ? »

The brunet’s face contorted itself in fear and he whispered miserably :

« Ranran... »

Said man bent over and kissed Reiji’s forehead.

« I’ll get you some things, continue drying your hair and drink your coffee, I’ll be back within a minute, okay ? »

The brunet grabbed the towel and, after a moment’s hesitation, he nodded.  
Ranmaru didn’t lose any time. He dashed out of the leader’s bedroom and ran to his own. There, he grabbed his brown pull-over, a pair of joggings - the clothes Reiji felt the safest in - then looked for his perfume and, lastly, he gently lifted the kitten. Once he had all those things in possession, he ran back to the Quartet Night leader. Entering the room once again, he made sure the door was closed, then put everything he carried on the bed. Reiji looked at him questioningly, then said in a weak but excited voice :

« Oh, kitten ! »

He leaned forward and started petting the small animal, who looked happy that it was being taken care of again. Ranmaru smiled at the picture.

« C’mon Reiji, I brought dry clothes. »

The brunet looked at said clothes and smiled brightly. He jumped out of bed, stripped out of his wet clothes and quickly put on the dry ones. However, Ranmaru had had the time to observe his body. It seemed to him the brunet had lost some weight, but the good news were that the white-haired idol did not notice any new scars on his boyfriend, and the ones he had already were slowly fading. He smiled, and his smile widened when he saw Reiji bury his face in his pull-over’s collar. His body became more relaxed as he settled in bed once again.

« What’s its name ? » he asked while stroking the kitten.

« Mari. I found it outside the building my interview took place in, so I brought it home. »

Reiji smiled brightly and whispered :

« Mari... So pretty... »

The, another thunder resonated, the loudest yet. Lights flickered and went black, plunging the room in complete darkness. Reiji yelped in terror while Ranmaru merely lot out a « shit » and took his phone out to activate the flashlight. Then, he saw Reiji’s curled up form being wrecked by sobs and suddenly the situation was all too familiar.  
The sight Ranmaru had grown to hate was probably Reiji crying. There was nothing worse than seeing those big grey orbs be filled with tears.  
This was something Ranmaru did not want to see.  
He quickly climbed onto the bed, lifted the brunet’s head and started kissing Reiji’s tears away. He took him in his arms again and gently rocked him.

« R-Ranran... s-scared... » the eldest mumbled.

« I know, I know, but it’s okay, I’m here, Mari’s here, you’re inside with us, nothing will happen to you. »

They stayed like this for a few minutes, Reiji burying himself deeper in his boyfriend’s arms with each thunder.

« We need a distraction. » the rocker finally stated.

Reiji lifted his head a bit to look at him questioningly.

« Where’s your laptop, Rei ? »

« Under the bed. » was the faint answer.

Ranmaru let go of the brunet and reached for the device. He opened it and smiled when he saw the battery displaying ‘Charged 100%’.

« How about we watch something ? »

Reiji blinked a few times, but then smirked.

« We can watch anything ? » the brunet asked.

Ranmaru knew he was going to regret it.

« Anything. » he answered.

Reiji’s smile grew only wider.

« The Lion King then ! »

The heterochromatic eyes closed.

« Oh, come on Ranran ! Lions are just big cats, right ? And the songs are awesome ! I’m sure Mari’ll like it ! »

« Ugh... fine. But don’t wake me up if I fall asleep after ten minutes. »

Reiji nodded excitedly and kissed Ranmaru’s cheek. He started the Disney and they settled in a comfortable position : Reiji in Ranmaru’s arms, Mari on his lap and coffee in hand, buried under his sheets.

Reiji fought bravely, but he fell asleep after twenty minutes ; completely drained. The white-haired man smiled and continued watching, as light snores emerged from the sleeping form and purring could be heard from the asleep kitten.

As Ranmaru himself fell asleep, the storm subsided, leaving the couple and their temporary pet in a peaceful night.

**Author's Note:**

> I don't think I am made to write fluff... I don't know what to think about it ^.^' 
> 
> I hate storms myself, my Ranran can confirm it (a two-hour drive in a big storm was probably one of the worst experiences in my life xD).
> 
> Don't hesitate to tell me what you think ! (I hope it's not too bad next to "Roller-coaster" ;-;)
> 
> Hugs and kisses on you all !!!! ~~


End file.
